


nothing but blue skies (from now on)

by actualtaracole (freaking_intelligent_fangirl)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Introspection, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, no seriously. like ninety percent of this fic is just them Thinking, this didn't end up quite as shippy as i thought it would
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25659217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freaking_intelligent_fangirl/pseuds/actualtaracole
Summary: Not me writing AOS fic in 2020 when I stopped watching the show five years ago! But alas the idea of Daisy finally getting a happy ending and a love interest that deserves her yanked me back in like a comically large vaudeville hook. This was written pre 7x11 and was also supposed to be posted at least two weeks ago, but laptop troubles and animal crossing kinda threw a wrench in those plans. Whoops. Anyways, enjoy!Eternal thanks to Corl and Tracey for the beta! ily both.
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	nothing but blue skies (from now on)

**Author's Note:**

> Not me writing AOS fic in 2020 when I stopped watching the show five years ago! But alas the idea of Daisy finally getting a happy ending and a love interest that deserves her yanked me back in like a comically large vaudeville hook. This was written pre 7x11 and was also supposed to be posted at least two weeks ago, but laptop troubles and animal crossing kinda threw a wrench in those plans. Whoops. Anyways, enjoy!
> 
> Eternal thanks to Corl and Tracey for the beta! ily both.

If Daniel Sousa were a weaker man, he would have taken more than a moment to admire the intruder. He pushes those feelings out of his mind and ignores the voice in the back of his head that sounds far too much like Peggy scolding him. He almost compares this… C.I.A. woman to Peggy, she carries herself similarly, but he dismisses that thought. He’s more easily distracted by thoughts of Peggy since he caught the intruder pretending to be her, and he cannot afford to be off his game today.

He’s almost feeling slightly better about his chances when the man he had locked up pushes him into _his own cell,_ and the C.I.A. woman shouts a promise through the steel door. Her betrayal stings in a way he doesn’t understand.

(He’ll realize, literal decades later, why it stung and just how blessedly different Daisy is from Peggy. He may have a type, but Daisy is a wonder all her own.)

She calls him unfashionable, but he can feel the weight of her gaze after he walks away. He chalks it up to her, keeping an eye on the new guy and moves on. But he helps her out of a thoroughly awkward situation with a kind of man that he is all too familiar with, and can feel the ghost of her hand on his chest for hours afterward.

He wakes up before her in the barn, and his resolve to stay behind after they get out of there only strengthens. He wants to kick himself for letting Malick sneak up on them. He had been so distracted by her fingers flying over her keyboard, the wrinkle between her eyebrows she got from concentrating, that they ended up in this mess. He has no idea why Malick wants them alive. If he were Hydra, he would have killed them for daring to interfere.

Malick kicks at his prosthetic leg, and Daniel opens his mouth to try and bargain Daisy’s way to safety. His stomach drops to his feet, and his heart crawls into his throat as he listens to Nathaniel Malick talk. He sees the fanatical light in his eyes. He claims not to be into “the family business,” but this man is Hydra through and through. Daniel has no idea what an “Inhuman” is, but he knows nothing good can come from what Malick is raving about. Daisy mumbles something about him not being an Inhuman, and he wants to kick her. Malick could kill him with this plan, trying to take powers he doesn’t have, but it might buy Daisy enough time to recover and get out of this hell. Besides, Daniel’s been dead for over 20 years.

But he’s too slow (again. He’s too slow _again_. He’s always too slow.) and they drag Daisy out. They drug her enough to keep her still and quiet after she breaks a beaker over a goon’s head. Daniel knows screams. He knows the kind of screams that come with torture at the hands of an enemy, and he knows the kind of screams that come from a makeshift field hospital. Daisy’s absolute silence is more haunting than any screams he’s ever heard.

They drop her at his feet like a sack of potatoes. He manages to choke out a question, asking Malick what exactly he did to her, but he barely hears his answer over the roaring of blood in his ears. He knows, in his bones, that it doesn’t matter what superpowers Malick managed to steal. If Daisy dies in this barn, he will tear down everything Nathaniel Malick ever built with his bare hands.

(He can’t bring himself to regret not making sure that Malick was dead when they escaped. From the moment they dropped Daisy in front of him, his sole focus was on keeping her alive. It was the right choice.)

He pillows her head on his thigh, just above where his real leg ends, and his prosthetic starts and ignores the brief pain that flares up. Instead, he checks her pulse, slow and thready but still there, _thank god_ , and pets her hair and talks and talks and talks. He makes a promise he has no idea how to keep, she pulls a piece of glass out of her palm, and he takes a moment to marvel at this woman.

His leg aches when they get to the Zephyr, too much time and weight on it without a break, but he steadfastly ignores it. The team rushes them halfway up the ramp, and he doesn’t protest when Agent Mackenzie takes Daisy from his arms. He follows them to the medical bay and sits down where he can elevate his leg and watch Daisy. He answers any questions Agent Simmons and the rest of the team have about what happened, without ever taking his eyes off her. He still has her blood on his shirt when he tells Agent Simmons that he is where he’s supposed to be.

Hours later, when Daisy is safe under the watchful eyes of Agents May and Coulson, and the pain in his leg has faded to a dull throb; he makes his way to his bunk for a shower and a change of clothes. There’s a bouquet of wild daisies on his thigh, where his real leg ends, and his prosthetic starts. Well. That’s all the confirmation Daniel needs.

~~~

Daisy sends May and Yo-Yo to Afterlife, to her mother, and cannot breathe from the bitterness that fills her lungs. She knows she should be back in the medbay, back in the healing pod, but she can’t stomach the idea of being out of commission. Daisy aches to go back to her bunk and surrender to the exhaustion that pulls at her bones, but she knows that she’ll be plagued with nightmares of Nathaniel Malick and her mother when she closes her eyes. So she sits in the mess hall and stares at a rapidly cooling cup of coffee.

She hears footsteps from down the hall and isn’t surprised in the slightest to see Sousa walk through the door. She nods at him but makes no move to leave or start up a conversation. She isn’t sure what would come out of her mouth if she opened it anyway. He shuffles around behind her, and Daisy lets the noise wash over her as she tries and fails to not think about her mother. She startles a bit when he sits down across from her, holding two mugs by the handles in one hand and an iPhone in the other.

“Agent Rodríguez gave me this, but I have got no idea how to use it. You know anyone who can help me?”

It’s painfully obvious what he’s trying to do, and the small smile on his face means he knows it too. But it’s been so long since someone did this, distracted her with something easy and silly, that she nods anyway. He’s halfway through an impressively complicated and long-winded question when she takes a sip from the mug that he had put in front of her. She swallows, looks into the cup, and then up at him, her surprise evident on her face. But his face doesn’t give anything away, so she doesn’t comment. She just wraps her hands around the mug, takes another sip of chicken broth, and answers his question.

“I’m glad he’s here,” she tells Coulson later and chalks up the pain in her ribcage to what Malick did to her.

Then she’s stuck in a nightmare, where the only constant is the repetition, and she can’t look at him without seeing the terror in his eyes, the blood in his mouth. She has to stop herself from putting her hands on him, from pressing her hand to his neck and feeling the steady beat of his heart, the consistent rise, and fall of his chest. She treads carefully out of the medbay. She refuses to let anyone die for her again.

“Why do you care?” she asks, centuries or seconds later, and the bitterness in her voice is palpable. Daniel just smiles.

“Because you don’t,” is his reply. Like it’s that simple or that easy. Like anything in her life has ever been that clear cut. She hisses in pain, doubling over at the unexpected fire in her ribs, and Sousa is there in an instant, all gentle hands and soft, concerned eyes.

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” she says through her teeth as she stands. There’s a crease between his eyebrows, which means he doesn’t believe her, but he doesn’t press. She sends him to turn on Coulson and ducks into her bunk. She stands in front of the mirror in her minuscule bathroom and pulls her t-shirt up enough to see the inky black swirls on her ribs. She takes a picture of her reflection, fixes her shirt, and leaves her bunk. She runs into Enoch, quite literally, on her way out.

“Hey, Enoch, do you know what this is?” she asks, showing him the photo. It’s almost a rhetorical question. She knows it’s a soulmark, and she knows there’s only one person it could belong to, but she asks anyway. Enoch stares at the photo with his head tilted slightly to one side.

“That appears to be a triskelion. It is an ancient Celtic symbol meant to represent strength, stability, and strong foundations. Is that all?” She just nods. She makes her way to the L.M.D. charging room and does her level best to not stare at him. She wonders if he has her mark too. She wonders if it would be easier if he did or if he didn’t.

They win. She saves the day, keeps the team, her family safe. But she doesn’t feel at all triumphant. She didn’t do anything. She didn’t make the sacrifice that saved them or take any risks to keep her family safe. They win, but it’s a hollow victory.

She sits in the mess hall, knees pressed to her chest, staring at nothing. She isn’t surprised when Daniel sits down next to her, an appropriate amount of distance away. She desperately wants him closer. She can’t stand how close he is. They sit in silence while Daisy’s thoughts turn into an awful ouroboros.

“Enoch. He,” she stops, clears her throat, and blinks back tears. “He was from the future, even farther in the future than we are. And before he… before he died, he told Coulson and I that we survive, but that the team doesn’t. That this is our last mission.” Saying it out loud gives the words a horrible weight. She feels they could crush her.

(She doesn’t say that Enoch told her that “her friends” would survive. He never said anything about her survival. There’s a part of her that welcomes the idea of going first, relishes it even. She’s known for years that her only peace, her only rest, would come when she dies. She is so weary, so bone-deep tired, but she is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. before she is anything else. She just hopes that the dissolution of the team means that the rest of her family gets their happy endings. That Simmons finds Fitz and that they get to raise a brilliant baby girl together. That Mack gets a dull desk job and a dozen vintage cars to tinker with in his free time. That Yo-Yo only runs for the joy of it, for the feeling of freedom that comes with her powers, and not because she has to run from something. She hopes that the two of them get to settle down together. That May and Coulson find their way back to each other. She hopes that Daniel finds someone to guide him through the future. She will gladly go first if it means her family gets to be content. She could see her mother again. See Lincoln again. Breathe again.)

Daniel is silent for a moment, processing her words.

“He could be wrong, you know. We’ve changed the timeline so much that the future he came from might not exist anymore.” 

“I feel like there’s an ‘or’ at the end of that sentence.”

“Or maybe he’s right. Maybe we all survive, but the team doesn’t because we all retire to live quiet lives.” He says it so sincerely that Daisy almost believes him.

“I don’t think people like me get to retire to a white picket fence and two point five kids.”

“Maybe not,” he concedes. “But even if that isn’t the life you want, you deserve to have some rest. Some real rest.”

“You don’t know what I’ve done.”

(“Some of my favorite people are people like you,” he had said. Daisy was almost glad he didn’t remember. If only he knew.)

“I don’t have to,” he says. “I know your type well enough.”

“What?” she asks, dumbstruck. He swings his leg over the bench so that he’s facing her.

“I know people like you. I’ve gravitated towards them my whole life. You’re committed to the greater good, helping as many people as you can, often to your detriment. Maybe you even think it cost you your soul. Now I haven’t been with this team for very long, but I can tell you that you have the brightest soul and the biggest heart I’ve ever seen. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so convinced that you’re the only one who doesn’t deserve a happy ending. But you do Daisy. You deserve everything that makes you happy.”

She stares at him, her mouth open in shock. It’s so similar but so different from what he told her in the time loop that it kills the last shred of doubt that hid in her heart. She throws her arms around him. He rocks back, lets out a soft _oof_ , but takes her weight without any issue. His arms wrap around her waist, and he holds her close. He is solid and real under her, unyielding in a way she’s never experienced before. Daisy presses her face against the juncture of his neck and shoulder and inhales the smell of his old fashioned cologne as the pain in her ribs expands to match the growth of his soulmark on her skin.

“Thank you,” she whispers, and she can feel the vibrations in his chest when he answers her.

They stay like that for a while.

~~~

(Decades later, they will lay in bed together and explain the story behind each of the soulmarks that grace their skin. At that point, they share some of the same marks. The S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia for Coulson, a fighter on a horse for May, a car from the 80s for Mack, a yo-yo for Elena, connecting chemical bonds for FitzSimmons, the atomic symbol of silicon for Deke. The ones they don’t share are the ones they explain, in whispers and with reverent touches. Daisy tells him about the Roman-style fountain for her mother, a penguin for her father, the lightning bolts on her back for Lincoln, and the all but faded golden retriever for Grant Ward. He has far fewer, and the only one worth noting is the bright red fedora for Peggy Carter.

Daniel might be old fashioned, but he isn’t an idiot. He knows that something changed between him and Daisy during the time loops. The extended hug that Daisy had given him at the end of his impromptu speech would have been enough, but the explosion of flowers on his leg only confirms it. (Agent Simmons hadn’t been kidding when she told him that prosthetics had advanced since the 50s. Daisies cover the top half of his leg and wrap around the back and down his prosthetic. There’s a symbol on his ankle that he had never seen before since his old fake leg hadn’t been capable of carrying soulmarks. He knows the moment he sees it that it’s for Mike Stevens. He cries at the realization.)

So he knows that something has changed, but he doesn’t know what or why. It’s frustrating not having all the information, but he doesn’t ask Daisy about what happened. He keeps watching, keeps his hand out to help, and hopes that she’ll come to him when she’s ready. So when they get to the Lighthouse, he takes her bag, and he gives her space.

That all changes when her mother arrives. Mack told him the barest details of what happened, and the way Daisy talks about it makes it clear how much she needs closure, even if she won’t admit it. A blind man could see how desperately Daisy wants to see her mother, and see her as the woman Daisy had always imagined. But she’s terrified, the memory of how their relationship ended hanging like a millstone around her neck. So he offers to bear it for her. He plays up his old-fashioned sensibilities, and she rewards him with a smile. It’s the second time she’s called him a square, but this time the affection behind the word is palpable. He’ll take it. 

When he’s sure that the reunion between Daisy and her mother won’t result in the building falling on their heads, he slips away. It isn’t a conversation meant for his ears.

(He wasn’t lying when he told her that there were people he wanted to say goodbye to. But for the most part, those people had left his life long before his “death.” He’s not a man that holds on to many ghosts, and this bizarre group of time-travelers has felt more like family than anyone he left behind in the 50s.)

Like most good things in Daisy’s life, her conversation with her mother is cut short by forces outside her control. She’s so concerned with keeping her mother safe that she doesn’t pay enough attention to where they’re going, and they turn a corner and run directly into Nathaniel Malick. She puts her hand up to quake him but finds herself frozen. Her heart races, her breathing is shallow, and the concrete walls of the Lighthouse turn into the wooden beams of that awful barn. She hates herself for being scared of him. And he’s standing there, smug and gloating, telling her mother her future, _their_ future, and it feels like he’s slicing into her again.

She finally throws a quake at him before his words can do any more damage and watches in horror as he gets up as if nothing happened. She knows he’ll retaliate, but she’s too slow, rooted to the spot and… well, she’s never had her powers used against her before. She can see him advancing on her, but her head is spinning, and she can barely lift her head, much less stop Malick. But then her mother comes to her rescue, really and truly, with no ulterior motives, just like Daisy had dreamed of as a little girl. Jiaying is beating him, draining the life out of him, and they might be able to win if she could just get up, get up, GET UP.

She watches, almost in slow motion, as he snaps her mother’s neck. Daisy’s entire world narrows to the sound and movement of her mother’s body, unceremoniously hitting the ground. She can feel Malick, the fool, advancing on her, aiming to take her out. But he stops, pulled up short as the entire building shakes with the force of Daisy’s grief and rage. Her anger is cleansing. It wipes away her fear and allows her to focus on the vibrations around her. She can feel the panicked beat of Malick’s heart, the breath rattling in his lungs. She can feel the vibrations of the Lighthouse and everyone in it. The world is resonant around her, and she uses it to her complete advantage.

Malick throws a quake at her that she neutralizes midair with a twitch of her fingers. Daisy uses the vibrations in the air to push her up, and she levitates for a moment before planting her feet on the ground. A distant part of her brain registers that Malick is terrified, but she’s buried so deep in her powers that she can’t fully appreciate it.

“ **I,** ” she says, her voice echoing and sonorous. “ **Am Quake, the destroyer of worlds. And you are an ant beneath my boot.** ” She throws both of her hands at Malick, and watches dispassionately as the vibrations she commands shred all of his internal organs and turns his brain into pudding. She snaps his neck for good measure.

There’s someone on the Zephyr with Simmons and Deke, a vibrational signature that she doesn’t recognize. She sends a quake directed at the unknown person and waits for them to drop. When they do, she runs to her mother, cradles her head in her lap, and works purely on instinct. If vibrations broke her mother’s neck badly enough that her healing ability couldn’t kick in, then maybe they could undo the same damage.

Her mother gasps back to life while the team, Daniel in front, rounds the corner into the hallway she’s in. They stop in shock at the scene in front of them. Daniel goes to his knees next to Daisy. His hands cup her face, and he looks more scared than she’s ever seen him.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she says with a smile before she surrenders to the blackness at the edge of her vision.

~~~

Daniel stares at Daisy, motionless in the healing pod again, and wonders how regularly this will happen.

Regardless of where they had been in the Lighthouse, the entire team had heard what Daisy said to Malick. Daniel had already been running to find her, had started the moment the building started shaking and had gotten to Daisy first. The team stopped to stare at the remains of Nathaniel Malick, his mouth open in a silent scream, his eyeballs popped out of his head, and his body almost flattened, his bones turned to jelly. But Daniel had gone straight to Daisy, who had looked like something out of a horror movie. Blood had been leaking out of her mouth, her eyes, her ears. There was bruising all over her face, and her jaw was hanging slightly open. Her quakes had shredded the skin on her palms, and the bones of her ankles protruded at unnatural angles.

Ever since Daniel had joined this team, he had tried to downplay any outward reactions he had to the strange and fascinating things he saw. Still, the mind-numbing terror he had felt must have shown on his face because Daisy had tried to reassure him, tried to say something through what Simmons would later diagnose as a broken jaw before she passed out in his arms.

“Daisy’s powers are vibrational,” Simmons had explained. “In simple terms, she can feel and channel the vibrations of everything around us, but it can come at a steep cost. By channeling those vibrations, Daisy interrupts her own, which can cause damage like she suffered today. She has a pair of gauntlets that she wears to minimize the risk and maximize her powers, but they’re attached to her Quake suit. She seldom uses this much of her power without her suit.” Simmons had stared at her friend with sadness in her eyes, and Daniel had made a mental note to pester Daisy into wearing her gauntlets more often. He’s so lost in thought that he doesn’t hear someone else walk into the medbay. He startles but isn’t surprised to see Jiaying standing next to the pod, her hand on the glass. They’re silent for a moment before she speaks.

“I don’t know how much Daisy has told you of her past or the pain I caused her, but she saved my life today. Despite everything that happened to her.”

“Of course she did. You’re her mother. She loves you. And she’s a superhero. Saving people is what she does.” Jiaying regards him sadly.

“I think her being a superhero had more to do with why she saved me than any blood relation. Besides, I don’t think I can claim to be her mother anymore. Not after what I put her through.”

“I will respectfully disagree, ma’am. I saw how much Daisy wanted to talk to you when we were in the base, and she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths in killing Nathaniel Malick if you didn’t mean anything to her. Besides,” he says, looking at Daisy, still and silent in the healing pod. “You haven’t done any of that yet. It might be her past, but it’s still your future. I don’t know if it will make any difference for her,” he says, inclining his head towards Daisy. “Thinking about all the different timelines too hard makes my head hurt, but you can be different for another version of her. The one that hasn’t been born yet. You can change your future. I know this version of her would appreciate it.”

Jiaying assesses him with a critical eye.

“She means quite a lot to you, doesn’t she?” Daniel looks away from Daisy and meets Jiaying’s gaze.

“Yes, ma’am, she does. Daisy means a lot to everyone on this plane and a fair number of people, not on it as well.”

“Good,” she says with a small smile and a determined nod. “It pains me to know that another version of me failed her so badly, but I am glad to know that she found a family that loves her the way she deserves.” She looks back at her daughter, the sorrow in her eyes still evident but less potent.

“She should be awake before we rendezvous with the rest of the team at Afterlife. You should stay. I know she would be happy to see you again before we leave.” She again looks back at him, trying to find a lie in his words or on his face. Whatever she sees must pass muster because she sits in the chair on the opposite end of the tiny room, sitting by Daisy’s head.

“Will you tell me about her?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know her that well, ma’am. I’ve only been on this team for a short while.” It’s not entirely untrue. He doesn’t know Daisy’s whole history. He doesn’t know how she joined S.H.I.E.L.D., how she got her powers, or how she earned the title “Destroyer of Worlds.” And what he does know of her history isn’t necessarily his to tell.

“I don’t need her life story, Mr. Sousa,” she says with a small smile. Daniel briefly wonders if her superpower is reading minds.

“Please, call me Daniel,” he says, instead of answering.

“Very well. I would much rather hear Daisy’s story from her, but I don’t think that is in the cards. I just want something of my daughter to take back with me. Silly stories, odd behaviors, favorite foods. The things that only come with the intimacy of family. Tell me those things.” There’s a teasing tone to her voice, but Jiaying looks so sad, desperate for any scrap of information on the daughter she might never get to know that Daniel can only oblige her.

~~~

When Daisy opens her eyes, she’s sure she’s in a different timeline, or a different universe entirely. Because when she props herself up on her elbows, she can see her entire family crowded into the medbay. And they’re all laughing. Daniel sees that she’s awake first, and the smile he shoots her is reassuring in a way she can’t quite explain. She opens the pod, and the pneumatic hiss has everyone turning their heads to look at her.

“You’re awake!” Jemma says, a broad smile on her face. Daisy swings herself out of the pod, and Daniel is up in an instant, gently pushing his now empty chair. He stays standing by her side.

“May was telling us a story about the time she had to drag you, Fitz, Hunter, and Bobbi out of a dive bar in Virginia,” Yo-Yo says, still laughing. Daisy looks at May, betrayed. She doesn’t look the least bit chagrined.

“It was nice to have someone new to tell stories to,” May says with a shrug. She gets an alert on her tablet. “We’re close to Afterlife. I’m going to go start the Zephyr’s decent now.”

“Do you need any help, Agent May?” Daniel asks. Daisy starts to laugh at Melinda May needing help to land any kind of plane when May nods.

“Sure. I’d appreciate it.” The team files out of the medbay after her. Daniel is the last to go, and he squeezes her shoulder on his way out, leaving Daisy alone with her mother.

“You stayed,” Daisy blurts out. She wants to lay down and die when the words come out of her mouth. A pained expression crosses Jiaying’s face.   


“I did. I wanted to make sure that you would be okay after everything that happened. And meeting your family was a lovely bonus.” Daisy stares at her, at a loss for words. “It broke my heart, hearing what I did to you from that vile man. I had hoped it was a lie, a story he fabricated to drive a wedge between us, but your reaction was proof enough that he was telling the truth.” She stops, takes a breath, and starts again.

“Genuine second chances are so rare, and I don’t know if knowing our future before you’re born counts as a second chance, but,” she takes Daisy’s hands in hers. “Daisy, I promise I will not allow anything like that to happen again. If I am blessed enough to be given another opportunity to be your mother, I will not squander it. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I will love you the way you deserve to be loved and how your family here loves you. And I am so sorry for all the pain you felt at my hand. You are a magnificent woman and any version of me that can’t see that is not a version that deserves you.” Her mother folds her into a hug. Daisy is crying when they separate, and Jiaying wipes her tears away with her thumbs. It makes Daisy’s heart hurt.

“Thank you,” she says. Jiaying nods.

“I know that it might not hold the best memories for you, but if you ever wish to make new memories, there is always a place for you at Afterlife. You can even bring Daniel Sousa with you,” she says with a small smile. Daisy does not blush.

“I’ll think about it,” she says. But even as Daisy says it, she knows she won’t take her mother up on the offer. Jiaying seems to know it too because she gives Daisy another tight hug.

“Will you walk me out?”

“Of course.” Daisy offers her mother her arm and walks her to the already open back ramp of the Zephyr.

“Goodbye, Daisy.”

“Bye, mom.” Jiaying walks down the ramp, and Daisy waves as it raises again. She stands in the cargo bay until they’re back in the air, and then she goes to find Simmons.

After she gets confirmation from Jemma that the Zephyr can take one more jump before they permanently land in 2020, Daisy goes in search of Daniel. She finds him reading a paperback with a cup of coffee in the mess hall. She sits down opposite him.

“You down for one more mission?”

“Of course. Where are we going?” The Zephyr shudders as it jumps, and Daisy smiles at him.

“You should know by now the question is _when_ are we going, not where.” She smiles and offers him a hand as she stands. He takes it, and she squeezes his hand as she pulls him up. He follows her out of the Zephyr, carrying the backpack that she tosses at him without complaint.

“It’s about a mile hike there,” she says, giving him a backward glance.

“You gonna need me to carry you on the way back?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Nah. I just had to make sure the elderly could keep up with me.”

“Hilarious,” he says, deadpan. They walk in companionable silence until Daisy stops. She reaches into her backpack and pulls out a pair of binoculars. Daniel does the same. They watch a clearing another mile or so away for a moment before a family makes its way to an already set up picnic.

“Is that?” Daniel asks.

“Yeah. Yeah, it is,” Daisy says, her voice thick. They watch as Kora runs after a young Daisy, laughing as she evades her big sister. Jiaying and Cal are a few feet behind the two girls, holding hands and watching their daughters fondly. Daisy and Daniel only watch from their spot for a few minutes, until the happy family sits down on their picnic blanket and starts to eat. Daisy stashes her binoculars back in her backpack, and Daniel does the same.

“Did you get what you came for?”

“I did. You ready to head back?”

“I follow where you lead, Ms. Johnson.” Daisy smiles at him, full and bright, and takes his hand as they start walking. “Did I ever tell you about the time I had to arrest Howard Stark for treason?”

“What? No!” And with that, Daniel spins a tale so outlandish that Daisy’s sure he’s making it up to keep her out of her head. She stops them when the Zephyr comes into view. “Thank you,” Daisy says. She doesn’t specify what this special thank you is for, staying with the team, or getting her mother to stay, or getting the team to play nice with Jiaying, or for chicken broth or any other things he had done for her. A thank you seems woefully inadequate, but it’s all she has. Daniel looks at her and nods.

“You’re welcome,” he says, and Daisy knows that he understands everything she was trying to say.

“You know, I never paid you back for telling me that story about Mike Stevens.”

“Considering the circumstances, I don’t think that’s a favor that needs repaying.”

“That’s a shame because I have a _really_ good story.”

“Well, then. By all means.” He gestures with one hand to continue. He’s still holding her hand.

“Once upon a time, a superhero got stuck in a time loop. The particulars of the situation aren’t that important. But what is important is that this hero of ours had a minimal amount of time to solve the problem and save everyone she loved. Our hero was no stranger to situations like these, but. This time there was something different. See this time; she had a new companion. Someone who had only recently joined her family, but still always managed to be there for our hero, standing right by her side. He was always offering to help our hero and keeping an eye on her to make sure that she took care of herself.

“Now, this was a little bit confusing to our hero. Not because she never had anyone support her, but because she never had anyone who supported her so completely in such a short time. Our hero thought she had moved past needing people outside of the family she already had. But this companion was a bit of an oddity. So in one of the time loops, when our hero asked him why he… answered with a very impressive speech.” Daniel has a smile small that softens his entire face, and there’s joy in his eyes. He looks at her like she hangs the sun like he can’t believe he’s lucky enough to hear what she’s saying. It’s a look she could get used to. So Daisy swallows and continues.

“I’m not going to ask you if you meant what you said because I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t have said things like that if you didn’t mean them but. I kissed you, and I’ve got your soulmark covering my entire rib cage, and I want you. I want a life outside of the constant fighting and terror that has defined my entire existence. You told me that maybe in this timeline, we all get to retire and live quiet lives. I’ve never had that before. I never thought I could have it before. That’s all I got,” she says, abruptly running out of steam. Daniel runs his thumb over her knuckles.

“While you were healing, and your mother was with the team, I got a file from Agent Rodríguez about Daniel Whitehall. He died of a heart attack, maybe ten years ago. The craziest part was, in the days before he died, he started rambling about ghosts of founding S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and phantom women who could move faster than the speed of sound.” Daisy stares at him, at a loss for words. She looks back in the direction of her biological family, and when she looks at Daniel again, the expression on his face answers any questions she might have had.

“I am genuinely sorry that I don’t remember what I said that made such an impression on you, and that I don’t remember that kiss. But,” Daniel raises their joined hands and kisses her knuckles—Daisy’s breath hitches. “You have always had me in any way you want. The veritable forest worth of flowers on my leg is a testament to that. Now, what do you say we meet up with the family and go home? I can’t wait to see 2020.”

And after a confession like that, there’s only one course of action for Daisy to take. She closes the minuscule distance between them and kisses him. His hands come up to cradle her face, and he holds her like she’s something precious. It’s not a deep kiss, but it makes Daisy’s toes curl regardless. Kissing Daniel feels like hope. Like happiness. It feels like her future. They pull apart, and he rests his forehead against hers.

“Yeah,” Daisy says. She can’t help but kiss him again. “Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case it wasn't super clear, Daniel snuck off with Mack and Yo-Yo and killed Whitehall after Malick experiments on Daisy and Daniel learns what happens to Jiaying. Because nothing says romance like killing the man who tortured your mom to death and inadvertently ruined your life.
> 
> I also flip-flopped for an annoyingly long time trying to decide if I wanted Daisy and Malick to have a knockdown, drag-out, epic fight, but the show did that for me, and honestly? Daisy's so powerful I think her just vaporizing Malick is more accurate, so that's what y'all got.
> 
> Lemme tell you though, I started watching DCTV shows around the same time I stopped watching AOS and the number of times I had realized I had written "metahuman" instead of "inhuman" or "vibes" instead of "quakes" was... well it was a lot. 
> 
> I also made a playlist for these two if that's something y'all are into. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2OnKS3BYWWwZ4NqtpJFbKT?si=BpGZpgHxSNyTbv_GawLDRg
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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